adding a shower

[Chuck52]

The kids are moving back and I need to add a shower so we don't have to share ours!

In the bath they will share, there's a tub which already has a hand-held shower which comes directly off the nozzle. That is, you pull up the diverter knob on the nozzle, and water goes to the hand held unit attached by a hose to a fitting just behind the diverter. The fitting is half inch, which is the same as the fitting on the shower unit in our master bath, which works great. The old hand-held unit, however, has very low flow. I assumed it was just plugged, but when I removed the fitting from the faucet nozzle I found an orifice of about an eighth inch in size....thus the slow flow. I'd like to do as little plumbing as possible in this project, so it would sure be nice to simply add one of those hand-held units that attach to an adjustable bar, and feed it from the nozzle. No need to get into the wall and add pipe. Do they still make nozzles like this old one, hopefully with a larger opening for the diverted stream? All the hoses I see seem to have half inch fittings, and it looks to me as if the inside diameter of the hose can't be much over a quarter inch. The one in our master bath connects to it's own fitting in the wall, but is the same size. It gives plenty of flow for a good shower.

Also, while I'm asking, I will need to put something on the walls around the tub. There's tile half way up the wall, but I need to use something above that for water protection. I found some 4x8 fiberglass at Lowes, and I think that will work OK. Can I just use silicone to stick it to the wall board? Is there a plastic cove trim that can be used in the corners?

Chuck

[egon]

Can that orfice be drilled out?

Egon

[Chuck52]

I was thinking about that myself. At worst, I might ruin the old spout that I would have to replace anyway. I found some replacements in the local Ace Hardware. They are in blister packs, of course, but it looks like the orifice is larger in them than in my old one, though I think the fitting in my new shower has a larger inside diameter than any of these that come directly off the nozzle. The ones on the nozzle have maybe a quarter inch male that screws into the nozzle. One at the store advertised on the box that it was for "adding a shower", but I will probably have to try it to see what the flow is like. If I end up adding some plumbing to make a "real" shower, I'll have to start by putting in some shut-off valves to isolate the bathrooms from the rest of the house plumbing. Why I didn't have that done when we had our recent addition built is just one of life's little mysteries.

Chuck

[jayhawkerroy]

Check out Sutherland Lumber if one is nearby. They used to sell a shower hardware kit that could be retrofitted to tubs that did not have showers. I am also sure you can get more expensive (and perhaps more suitable for your needs) at a plumbing supply store. Now, about adding waterproof surfaces above your existing tile. Fiberglass or acrylic would be OK. However, you must use correct adhesive (not silicone caulk) for proper bonding to the wallboard. Use the adhesive recommended by the fiberglass/acrylic tub kit manufacturer. Strongly suggest using silicone tub & tile caulk in a bead where the tile and fiberglass surface meet, so you don't have water seepage at that seam. There is also a plastic U-channel materiel you might want to use around the fiberglass (to provide a more finished look), and I would recommend embedding it in silicone caulk to prevent any seepage also. Have used both methods with good success. Hope this helps out.

[Chuck52]

Thanks. I'll look around for better hardware than the Ace folks had, and the advice about the fiberglass sounds right. I was thinking about using some kind of plastic cove moulding down the corners where the fiberglass sections meet if I can find something. The way I cut sheet material, I may need to cover my sins.

Chuck

[jayhawkerroy]

I'v used plastic cove as you described and it looked pretty good. I also remembered that we used some 4x8 fiberboard panels that had a heavy duty vinyl fabric on it to finish off the walls above a two piece cabinet shower installation above the acrylic shower cabinet. We embedded every piece of cove we used in silicone caulk, just to be safe. If you can get your color/pattern matching to work, it usually turns out very well. This fiberboard was easily cut with a circular saw and saber saw, went up with standard construction adhesive, and a small number of panel nails. Adhesion was very good for the panels that way. The process was similar to putting up wood panelling. Cutting it was much easier than cutting acrylic/fiberglass, so we actually got good close seams to caulk and used the cove, outside corner, etc for trim outside the shower area. One more thought -- there are also some really good heavy duty vinyl wall papers that are nearly waterproof that could coordinate with your existing tile choices. For small jobs like this, we found using a freight salvage place like TRADEX in Joplin cut the costs of the project substantially and still looked good. Don't know if you have any similar places in your neck of the woods, but I would check them out along with building supplies, etc. Good luck on your project. Planning and scoping it out correctly is about 40% towards getting it right.

[Chuck52]

We have a place called Hoods that may be similar. If they have it, if you can find it amongst all the clutter, and if it is still in decent shape after being crammed in with just about everything in the known universe, you can get good deals there. I'm not going to be trying to match the color of my tile. This bathroom is original to the house built in 1958. Apparently the wife chose the color scheme; pink. It is a really nice tile job. Floor, half way up the wall, the built in two sink vanity top, and a little ledge over a pull-out laundry hamper. Great tile job. Even a built-in toilet paper holder. Pink. Three or so shades of pink. Pink stool. Pink sinks. Pink tub. We will eventually (probably) completely re-do this bath, but in the meantime I am thinking of it as the "dusky rose" bath. I'll use white fiberglass, or whatever, above the tile around the tub, and will follow your suggestions about finishing the edges so it looks as neat as possible. It may be this way for an extended time, because I'm really going to hate taking out all that tile. If only it wasn't pink!

Chuck

[GaryM]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
We have a place called Hoods that may be similar

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The Hood's in Forestell?

[Chuck52]

Gary,

There are Hoods in Columbia and Jeff City, too. The one in Jeff City runs TV commercials that make me think it might be of a somewhat higher class than the Columbia store. However, the Columbia store is kind of fun to poke around in. You never know what you might find, though you are unlikely to find whatever it is you went there for in the first place. What's the one in Forestell like?

Chuck